The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences has a special issue, “Navigating Asteroid Impact Hazards: Astronautics Strategies for Planetary Defense” (link.springer.com/collections/didcicgjgf), which I’ve written about before. The special “issue” keeps going into April (vol. 73 #2): McMillan, R. S. Brucker, M.… Read More »Note, Paper: More ‘Roid Toil
Jorge Cham is probably better known for his webcomic, PHD (Piled Higher and Deeper). But did you know he does a podcast too? On last week’s episode, the topic was asteroids, with guest Phil Plait: Jorge Cham, Wed March 25,… Read More »ScienceStuff on “Mining the Asteroid Belt”
Advances in Space Research for 1 April (vol.77 #7) brings us: Qiao, P. Qian, Y. Chen, W. Sequential multiple kinetic impact strategy for asteroid deflection using an intermediate asteroid P. 7920 .2026.02.012 You read that right- Qiao et al. study the… Read More »Note, Paper: Astero-Bankshot Practice
Just posted in the “Expert Voices” section of Science magazine (26 Mar, vol. 391 #6792): https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aef4989Andy Lawrence, Is astronomy a luxury? 10.1126/science.aef4989 Astronomy includes planetary defense, and is therefore not a luxury. The cost of planetary defense telescopes has been… Read More »Is Astronomy a Luxury NO
Finally, Space Sci Rev has published (vol. 222): Vincent, J. B. Kovács, G. Nagy, B. V. et al. The Asteroid Framing Cameras on ESA’s Hera Mission 31 s11214-026-01288-5 Hera successfully launched to, and is now bound for, the binary asteroid(s)… Read More »Note, Paper: Asteroid Cam Plan
Now in Acta Astronautica for April (vol. 241): Dorrington, S. Olsen, J. Parametric economic modeling of asteroid mining architectures Pg 19 .2025.11.006Gavira-Aladro, M. Bombardelli, C. Exhaustive search of gravity assist trajectories for rapid reconnaissance and deflection of fictitious asteroid PDC2025 Pg 325… Read More »Note, Paper: Asteroids, Found, Fictional, Feasible…
There’s an opportunity for you, yes you, to do your part in asteroid research, and potentially planetary defense. The Daily Minor Planet crowdsourcing project (www.zooniverse.org/projects/fulsdavid/the-daily-minor-planet) allows Net users to scour telescope images for potential moving objects, i. e., asteroids. Now,… Read More »Zooniverse Views, II (Daily Minor Planet)
Now available in JGR-Planets (that’s Journal of Geophysical Research-), for Feb (vol. 131 #2): Chow, I. Brown, P. G. Decameter-Sized Earth Impactors—II: A Bayesian Inference Approach to Meteoroid Ablation Modeling e2025JE009392 2025JE009392 We’re not too worried about the smallest class… Read More »Note, Paper: Bolide Boil Modeled
It’s LPSC time. The 57th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference will be held (in the same Houston area) this March 16-20: https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2026/ Really, the LPSC is the big meeting of the annual calendar in this field. This year, there are… Read More »LPSC 2026- Part I
It’s finally here. After the first paper in February, the two linked papers are now in the new, next (April) issue of J Astronaut Sci. They’re all part of a special collection (a virtual “issue”), “Navigating Asteroid Impact Hazards: Astronautics… Read More »Note, Paper: Hazard Eval Triad (…and Pals)